Andy and Matt Blackwood, friends of mine from the staff of the National Youth Science Camp in West Virginia, are in the Midwest and took a few days to ride with me. Fresh horses. We took off from my house, out of the city north and west, north and west, right into a northwest wind. The result is that it's in your face at all times.

The weather report calls for east winds on our ride east tomorrow, and south winds on our ride south.

Yeesh.

Turns out, it's 82 miles to Oshkosh via (un-bike-friendly) Hwy 41. Via back roads, it's 94. Whoops. Broke another spoke, but the good people at Wheel and Sprocket have it in hand.

Brianna Lane was the opener, she was great, and my Oshkosh debut was a lot of fun -- the New Moon is a soulful joint.

Almost forgot -- we scared a deer into the brush to the right of us, then saw a heron take flight to the right. Apparently, something in the brush scared the deer worse, and he bounded back across our path at a dead run. Exploded out of the woods maybe twenty or 30 feet ahead. That would've been all three of us.